Fun Dog

Went up to Fort Lawton today just to see the place. Took the cameras along just in case. These dog photos remind me a little of cave paintings. If judged by some mundane criteria for photographic quality like sharpness they don't pass the test. They were taken with an Olympus e510 + 70-300 ZD toward the long end 250-300mm at f8 1/250th IS mode one (not the panning mode, it didn't occur to me to switch to mode 2) , panning fast to keep up with the dog but not even an attempt to capture the movement of the dog. Mostly this was focusing practice on a fast moving object using auto-focus in mode one (shutter activated) with all three AF sensors active. This reminded me of the dispute a year or so ago about the Olympus E3 in Africa promo video where the cheetah was running and the camera was trying to grab something with one of the AF sensors and only when the cheetah was in the clear where there was no competition for a focus target did the AF lock on the animal. In view of the now notorious focusing problems with the E3 it is kind of humours to look back on the discussion of that video in which we were speculating about the capabilities of the E3 to track a moving subject.

Steel Works - Blue Door

The steel works in south Seattle has a new building. I took some photos of the old building as it was being torn down. Here is a door on the south wall.

Weelbarrow

Two Men - The Plaza south of Pioneer Square

Two men sitting at the same table. The man in the orange hat doesn't seem to change. The other man is in a constant state of transition. A series of photos in chronological order.

Tug on Duwamish

Did some shooting late Sunday Oct 19 in South Seattle. Took about sixty exposures of this tug as it was approaching and then departing.

Beach Dream

This one was taken the same evening with October Tree. A little nighmare quality here, reminds me of the beach scenes of Bill Braynt. I almost erased this shot in camera when I saw how soft the bird was but a little voice told me not to erase it and now I see why. The out of focus bird isn't really an issue, since the bird isn't the subject, however without the bird there would be no photograph.

For another bird dream see Two Pigeons.

Dog on Leash

Same time and location as October Tree. The man with the husky is a local. See him all the time.

October Tree

This was taken on Oct 10th 2008, just minutes before sundown. The light coming over the water was very soft, filtered through a light fog. To preserve the look and feel of the scene I resisted the temptation to increase the midtone contrast with the clarity slider in Lightroom2. I gave the overall grayscale curve a steep slope with a flat shoulder at the highlights and a long toe in the shadows. I boosted the fill light to about 50 and then I did something counter intuitive, I decreased the clarity to -25. I have posted both the grayscale and color versions. I like the softness of the tonal transitions in the midtones. That is what it looked like.

Angelic

Fooling around at the beach today. The gulls and crows were fighting over some dead fish. This gull was bathing in the waves.

619 Post Ave

This is a shot taken just north of Yesler in Post Ave. This part of Seattle has a lot of old brick that will probably disappear when the viaduct gets torn down.

Opening Time - J&M Cafe & Cardroom

J&M Cafe is on 1st Ave & Washington St one block south of Yesler which is part of the historical club district dating back to Seattle's earliest days. Both a night club and a daytime tourist trap. I haven't spent much time inside in the five decades I have been walking the district.

A Horse on Alaskan Way

This was taken August 23, 2008 late in the day just before sunset. The location is on the water side of Alaskan Way just south of Pier 56 where all the tour boats tie up. There are several horse drawn carriages that work that location in the summer time.

The reason for the crop was simple, I had a long lens mounted and this was as wide as I could go. The maple trees cast a leaf pattern shadow on the back of the horse.

Smoke Break

Parking Meter

Post Alley at Pioneer Square.

If you take a close look at the wall on the dark side of Parking Meter, just under the vent you can see the remains of an arch over a former window. This is archeological evidence left over from the 19th century when this would have been the the second floor not the ground level. The street was filled in and raised one floor in 1906 leaving an under world called underground Seattle by the the folks who want to sell you a tour. When I was in college we had our own unofficial tour of underground Seattle, places that were not on the regular tour. It didn't last long. Police issues.

Sleepers - South of Yesler

Sunday Morning, 9/7/08, south of Yesler. A big crowd in the square just north of the fire station.

Push Broom

Stairs to Post Alley

This was taken on the same hot night as the Elliot Bay harbor shots. This man is walking his dog which means he is probably a local resident of one waterfront condos.

Tourboat on Elliot Bay

This was taken at the same time and place as Harbor - Last Light. This shot is looking toward the south end of the Olympic range. I think the mountain in profile there is named "the Brothers".

Harbor - Last Light

Not sure about this one. All that light on top of the clouds kind of distracts from the main subject which is the ships and the water. I could crop off the top but then the sky would be overly dark. So for now I will leave it as it is.

EDIT 8/30/08:Now I have reworked it a little, not quite as dark and added a BW version. When I shot this standing on the empty pier just north of the Aquarium in Elliot bay, I figured it was throwaway shot. I was using a long lens and had zoomed back to 70mm which didn't give me enough room to get all the ships in the photo. Anyway, it wasn't a complete loss.

St Elmo's Fire - Mt Rainier Sunday Morning

Here is a classic piece of 'bad art' which was actually a high key flat image until it was tortured in post-processing. The St Elmo's Fire around the water tank and trees is the result of pushing the clarity slider to 100% in ACR and then cranking the contrast up in levels to the point where you could see vertical banding in the sky from the sensor at 50% but not too much at this size. Image size reduction covers a multitude of evils.

Two Gulls Looking North

This was taken at the DesMoines Marina about 10am Sunday 8/24/08 with a storm developing, rain arrived about 12:30 PM.

DesMoines Marina Club House

Basement Old Federal Building

This is the basement entrance to the old federal building in Seattle. Not much in the way of security. A chain with padlocks. Don't know what goes on in this building now since the new federal building just across first avenue has been in operation for over a decade. I remember going in this building once for an interview with my draft board in regard to my application for CO status. That was 38 years ago.

Power and Light [again]

Here is a new contribution to my power and light series. I like the architectural chaos evident here. Note that the distortion here is not a fault of the lens, the building really does sag in places and lines don't meet at right angles.

[F]ord with Two Plates

Went to the Thursday farmers market in Burien today. Nothing much happening but found some stuff to shoot in the neighborhood of Old Burien just north of 152nd behind Kirk's Feed Store. The man who owns these trucks pulled up in a 30 year old elcamino and chatted with me about his most exotic truck a '55 GMC 630 cab-over which I will post later.

Seattle Mystery Bookshop

I was standing at the north end of Pioneer Square bracing my camera against a tree or lamppost looking up First Ave when I took this shot.

The Heat

Saint with Roses

This is the second time I have shot this wall. Decided to give it another try. Need to have someone tell me what saint this is, a saint who guards the door to your business. This was taken Thursday August 31st in Old Burien, one of the side streets just off the main drag. I stopped in at several of the shops and chatted with the proprietors. Don't often drive down this street since it is a bottle neck created intentionally by the city 'planners' and the traffic backs up several blocks from the light.

Abstract

I have been running dry on subject matter so I end up shooting stuff like this.